Mayor Bill Finch, left, and Assistant Police Chief James Nardozzi speak at a roundtable discussion regarding the next steps in the fight against gun violence at Bridgeport City Hall on Monday, Sept. 23, 2013.

Mayor Bill Finch, left, and Assistant Police Chief James Nardozzi speak at a roundtable discussion regarding the next steps in the fight against gun violence at Bridgeport City Hall on Monday, Sept. 23, 2013.

Bridgeport Assistant Police Chief James Nardozzi talks during Mayor Bill Finch's community cabinet meeting with residents of the upper East Side at Vazzy's Brick Oven restaurant in Bridgeport, Conn. on Tuesday October 15, 2013. less

Bridgeport Assistant Police Chief James Nardozzi talks during Mayor Bill Finch's community cabinet meeting with residents of the upper East Side at Vazzy's Brick Oven restaurant in Bridgeport, Conn. on Tuesday ... more

BRIDGEPORT -- The Bridgeport Police Hispanic Society is demanding the resignation of the department's assistant chief after police officers said he allowed a college professor to give an ethics lecture full of racist statements and slurs.

During at least one of those sessions, they claim Nardozzi stood quietly by as the professor -- William McDonald -- used the word "spic" repeatedly to refer to Hispanics.

"Right now we're not asking for an apology," said Juan Santiago Jr., president of the Hispanic Society. "We want him to resign or for the administration to fire him. How could (Nardozzi) not say anything?"

Santiago, a police officer, said he was told about the training session by many very angry members of the police force.

More than 100 of the roughly 427-member department are Hispanic, he said.

Police officials, including Police Chief Joseph Gaudett, did not respond to requests for comment.

Finch said he has asked Gaudett to review the incident and is awaiting a report.

"It has been brought to my attention that there was language used by a non-city employee conducting a police training class that was offensive to many of the officers present," Finch said. "This is a very serious allegation, and it goes without saying that my administration does not condone offensive language of any kind. With that said, I will refrain from further comment until all the facts have been presented."

Nardozzi, who makes $113,220 a year, was hired last November to rein in the overtime racked up by Bridgeport's police department.

Santiago said as the department's second highest ranking officer, Nardozzi should have spoken out against the racially insensitive lecture, especially after several sergeants made it clear they were upset with the language being used.

"Sergeant (Roberto) Melendez endured the degradation of Hispanics, waiting for Assistant Chief Nardozzi. ... giving him the benefit of the doubt to see if Assistant Chief Nardozzi would step up and denounce the use of this hateful, offensive, racist word, but shockingly, he did not," the letter states.

It was then that Melendez and a sergeant from the Office of Internal Affairs denounced McDonald's use of the word "spic," the letter states.

The word is considered so offensive to Hispanics that they don't even use it among themselves as an insult or in a joking manner.

The Hispanic group also accuses McDonald of admitting he is racist and, in a separate ethics training session, making a direct correlation between a decrease in inner-city crime during and after the Vietnam War and the fact that African-Americans were killed in that war and did not then procreate.

A spokeswoman for John Jay College declined to comment on the allegations against McDonald.

"The class was not a John Jay-sponsored training session and we have no information about these allegations," said spokeswoman Maria Garcia in an email Wednesday.

State Sen. Andres Ayala, one of many local Hispanic officials, sent a copy of the letter to Finch -- who had yet to read it, but was disturbed by the news.

"I don't know the extent of what happened on that day, but whether it's the actual word itself or any other derogatory statement made about any racial group, it's a problem," he said. "Those types of statements should not be tolerated."

Ayala noted that the last person accused and found to have jokingly used derogatory statements, former police spokesman Tim Quinn, was immediately fired by Gaudett and Finch.

Lt. Lonnie Blackwell, leader of the Bridgeport Guardians, a group of African-American officers formed in 1970 to fight discrimination against minorities in the department, said no such language was used during his ethics training session with McDonald.

"But this type of alleged behavior sends a bad message," he said, "and tolerating this conduct would be a major setback to the Guardians' efforts."

When asked about the incident at a community meeting Tuesday night, Nardozzi declined to comment. But when told that police officers were upset by the incident, he gave a slight smile and said, "Some of them are."

Many officers won't speak out publicly because of the potential consequences, but the Hispanic Society couldn't allow Nardozzi's inaction to go unaddressed, Santiago said.

"We can't allow someone to bring somebody in to talk like that and disrespect us and our community," Santiago added. "We can't do that. I've talked to a lot of my members and they are upset."

While Nardozzi was at the community meeting in the city's North End on Tuesday, Gaudett was at a Police Commission meeting downtown promising to launch the formal investigation. He confirmed Wednesday evening that he would try to determine what, if anything, derogatory was said at the training sessions.

"Training sessions are meant to inform, not to offend," he said, in an emailed statement. "I do not condone any language that people might find offensive, whether in dealing with the community we serve or in an academic setting."